Chapter 653. Mysterious Cave.

Author Note: p atr eon.com/posts/sun-engulfing-92141463 This is the completed version of Ebirah's illustration. "Sun Engulfing Lobster Ebirah, Crystal Beauty." It's actually the best illustration I've received yet, on par with Yasenia's portrait (Yasenia's portrait is free on Discord). Artist: Jazmenia

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After they entered the mountain, Andrea couldn't hold it and laughed. "It seems our name has some influence. Good job, love."

Yasenia smiled. "Honestly, I was fully expecting a fight to occur. It's a shame. I wanted to fight with you in a group."

Cecile agreed while walking hand in hand with Yasenia. "I wanted to fight too. They are cowards."

Tatyana smirked. "Well, that wolfman looked very butt hurt. As long as you steal the major treasure in this mountain, you will probably have a fight. I can guess that they are already planning something."

Yasenia was unsure. "Really? Even after knowing who we are and the attitude of the Devil Smashing Ape?"

Tatyana nodded. "Those kinds of people are too prideful since life has always gone with their whims and desires. This time, you not only offended them and their race but also did it in front of many other clans. Moreover, as you've heard, they are quite sure that they can kill you because of the level limitation of the Secret Realm." 

Yasenia nodded. "That's a fair assessment." 

Cecile's lips gained a slight smirk. "I hope they can resist."

Yasenia chuckled. "Let's not get too overconfident and maintain a higher alert from now on. Kali, are they following us?"

They were in the forest part of the mountain, so Kali was the person with the broadest detection range.

Kali sent a pulse of energy through the forest and closed her eyes for a second. Then, she shook her head. "I can sense a few people in a five-kilometer radius, but they are not life signatures of the seniors we've seen before."

Angel was skipping a bit ahead, looking at a few plants with interest and then plucking them. "These are nice to make formation ink~."

Yasenia looked over and recognized them. She chuckled. "Don't we have quite a few growing in my ring, baby?"

Angel said seriously. "There are never enough formation materials!" 

The girls laughed. 

Evelyn asked. "Speaking of which, where is that treasure you felt."

Yasenia looked around and sniffed the air. After a few moments, she looked upward and spoke. "In that direction. I think the treasure is in the rocky area."

They nodded and continued climbing. Yasenia tilted her head. "Can you girls feel it?"

The girls spread their senses and suddenly caught a faint presence, making their eyebrows rise. Evelyn spoke. "Quite a strong presence? Is there a powerful beast around here?"

Andrea hypothesized. "If Yasenia can smell a powerful treasure, it should have a strong protector. This thing must be it."

Kali gave a detail most of them didn't catch. "It's… hibernating? I can feel its vital signs being quite feeble. However, it's not a weakness due to injury, but as if it conserves energy."

The dragoness's said seriously. "Just in case, be serious. One thing is wanting to fight, and another is being reckless and taking fights we might be unable to win." 

The girls nodded, and energy slowly circulated in their bodies, being prepared just in case. 

After walking for about thirty minutes at a moderate pace, they left the forest area and stepped into the rocky part of the mountain. It was a very tall one, about thirty or more kilometers in height. 

Andrea suddenly remembered something. "Right, little girl, can you detect high-quality minerals? Are there any?" 

Ebirah blinked and stopped enjoying the scenery, using her Ore Lobster senses to feel the entire mountain. Her vision pierced through the rocks quickly, and her pinkish-purple eyes glittered after a while. "Oh? There are interesting ones in the middle of the mountain." 

The girls pondered, and Yasenia guessed. "A hidden cave? A tomb? Maybe it's the nest of the strong creature." 

While discussing it, they met with a group of juniors. 

Well, the girls called them juniors, but our girls were actually much younger. Evelyn was 29, Angel was 30, and Cecile was 31. Then, Kali was 33, Andrea was 39, and Yasenia was 50 and the oldest. 

However, since cultivators took strength as a measure instead of age, calling them juniors was not incorrect. The ones approaching them were in the Spiritual King realm, the realm below the Ethereal Soul realm. 

One of the leading ape juniors, a woman with brown and red fur on her arms, spoke. "Who are you? Haven't you heard that this mountain is reserved for our clans?"

Yasenia and the girls looked at them lightly and ignored them, continuing their way.

The ape woman was angered. "Hey! Stop right there if you don't want to regret it!"

Yasenia sighed and looked at them coldly. "Scram." 

The ape woman was about to get furious, but a massive wave of pure aura burst from her, slamming all of them and sending them flying as if a steel wall had hit them.

Then, the dragoness saw their sorry states after just an effortless action from her and muttered. "This is why you don't mess with people a realm above you…"

Evelyn chuckled. "Love, you are equivalent to being two realms above them. If it is a realm above, a large enough group can still defeat a higher-ranked cultivator." 

Yasenia tilted her head. "I think that statement is less true the higher you go in the cultivation ladder." 

Valeria nodded. "That's right and wrong. The thing that gets more difficult is killing someone, which is different from beating people. However, it is also true that the distance between realms keeps getting larger."

The girls half-understood and nodded. 

Without getting involved further, they accelerated, not to be stopped again, following the trail and finally arriving at a place three-quarters up the mountain. 

There was an enormous hole in the mountain, as if something had excavated it, going deep into it. Our dragoness could clearly smell the scent of the treasure leaking from here. Yasenia blinked and smiled. "It's here."

Evelyn turned around and looked back, seeing the immense forest that extended toward the horizon. She felt somewhat stunned. "You sniffed this entrance from there?" 

The girls turned around and saw where Evelyn was pointing at, making their lips twitch. 'Even if it is acute, isn't this a bit exaggerated?' 

Andrea commented seriously. "That's about one hundred kilometers away, no? Maybe a bit further?" 

Tatyana whistled. "The distance is approximately 154 kilometers away. Even for a dragon, Little Treasure's nose is very sharp. Well, considering the treasure is in the Heaven rank. If it is above, it's still not bad." 

Mirrory and Valeria agreed. 

Yasenia laughed and proudly puffed her chest. "See this, dears? Even if we have nothing, we won't starve with me here!" 

The girls burst into laughter. Kali chuckled and joked. "Very reliable indeed. I'm sold on this relationship more than ever." 

Evelyn licked her lips while looking at Yasenia's chest. "Even without that, just selling the delicious product from those peerless heavenly milkers-."

BANG! 

The girls saw Evelyn rolling down the mountain, somewhat speechless.

Ebirah tugged Andrea's clothes. The tall and heroic woman looked at her and saw her almost drooling. "A lot of yummy minerals are inside."

The girls smiled again and looked at Yasenia, asking what to do now and ignoring the loud bang they heard when Evelyn smashed some rocks down below. 

Yasenia shrugged. "I mean, we should naturally go inside. Any opinions?"

Cecile flapped her wings once, landing at the entrance. She crouched down, and her icy blue eyes squinted. "I see quite a few traces from bipedal and quadrupedal creatures. There are probably cultivators that have discovered this before us. If we meet them, what should we do?"

Yasenia pondered, and a hint of cruelty flashed in her eyes. However, before saying her thoughts, she asked. "Any opinions?" 

The girls looked at each other, and Andrea suggested. "How about ignoring them unless they are a threat?"

'As expected.' Yasenia looked at her darling and smiled softly, her eyes softening and hiding her previous thoughts. 

She hugged her toned and muscular arm and giggled. "Sure, we'll go with that plan. Is anyone against it?" 

Evelyn, who returned from her trip, laughed. "The big girl is a softy inside, very cute~."

Andrea rolled her eyes.

Since nobody disagreed with Andrea's proposal, they dove into the large cave. 

The tunnels were wide, rocky, and circular. 

While diving inside, they stopped occasionally to retrieve all the High-level Earth and Low-level Heaven-ranked ores they found. 

All those ores were discovered by Ebirah, who kept pointing at places where to excavate. 

None of the girls had Earth attributes, but this didn't mean they couldn't use Earth energy. 

The attributes a person was born with pointed to their affinity. For example, to use a simple Earth skill, someone with an Earth attribute would need ten points of energy, but someone without it would need a thousand or even more energy.

So, excavating a wall by using Earth energy was inefficient but possible for our girls. 

The cave passages were complex, but with a cultivator's powerful memory and Cecile, who had learned how to create maps and much more from Clara, navigating it without getting lost was not difficult.

They met two groups on the way, one with four cultivators and another with six, but following Andrea's suggestion, our girls ignored them. 

While walking, a wall at the side collapsed without warning, and a creature with long claws attacked Ebirah. 

Andrea was about to react, but Yasenia lightly stopped her with her energy, enough so that Andrea could still interfere if she wanted to. 'Trust in her.' 

Andrea's tensed muscles relaxed, and she observed closely.

The creature that jumped was a second-level Fusion Core beast, similar to a second-level Unification Realm beast. 

The little girl looked to the side, and she punched without releasing Andrea's hand. 

The girls saw a massive swirl of energies rushing toward her fist, pinkish-golden light erupting from her, and her dainty fist clashed against the beast's sharp claws.

CLANG! 

The sound of claws against Ebirah's fist did not make a flesh-against-bone sound, but rather, the sound of two metals clashing together.

Moreover, you could see sparks flying in their collision as the extremely sharp-looking claws tried to scratch past Ebirah's skin without success. 

Then, the massive bodily strength of the lobster girl transmitted to that creature, shooting it back like a cannonball and smashing it into the wall, creating a second hole beside the one the beast used to ambush. 

Ebirah snorted with a cute frown. "Bad shrimp, you almost scared me. Who jumps out of walls like that?"

The girls felt their eyes twitch. 'How durable are you, girl?' 

Evelyn commented with a wry smile. "Her defense is absurd; those claws are similar to a low-level Heaven-ranked sword, yet they created sparks when they landed on her bare skin."

Andrea chuckled and completely relaxed, patting Ebirah's head. "You have become very powerful, little one." 

Ebirah blinked and squinted, pushing against Andrea's big hand and giggling while her tail flapped happily. "Hehehe."

Yasenia's energy surged, and she used formless energy to dig into the hole and move the beast. 

The rubble parted, and a furry creature was revealed. 

It was bipedal, but the frontal arms were large and robust. Each arm ended in sharp and curved claws perfect for digging, while the tense leg muscles aided with their explosive speed and ambush capability.

Nevertheless, the right arm, the one it used to attack Ebirah, was twisted in directions it shouldn't have, while the metallic claws were warped as If an enormous force had bent them. 

Yasenia saw the beast twitch and was about to wake up from the shock, and her tail quickly moved, piercing into its head and killing it in the spot. "Hmm… it is just a second-level Fusion Core beast, and its claws are already this sharp. Let's be careful. One at our level should have claws sharp enough to hurt us…" Yasenia looked at Ebirah for a second. "… Most of us." 

Yasenia was not afraid of conceding the top spot to Ebirah if it was about pure defense without buffs. Her dragon scales were very durable, maybe even sturdier than Ebirah's shell, but the thickness of Ebirah's shell trumped hers by a lot. 

This defense translated to the human shape of the beast, making Ebirah a little indestructible girl. Yasenia chuckled in her head. 'Darling and little Ebirah are really well-suited together.'

Then, the dragoness dug into its brain and took the beast's core, throwing the corpse into her ring. Yasenia sniffed the sphere, and although it still had an unpleasant smell, it was much better than the orb from the Mind Core beast she picked up the first day. 

She threw the core into her ring again, and they continued their trip into the mountain. 

Knowing there were ambushers, they slowed down and continued advancing while being on high alert. 

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Cecile: We are approaching the treasure.

Kali: What kind of beast is guarding it? 

Angel: No matter what, Yasenia will beat up that beast easily! 

Yasenia: Baby, you are so cute! Come here.

Author: While our girls speak about that… I summon you!

WPOmega: Hello! 

Kali: Welcome back. What kind of questions do you have today?

WPOmega: Since you made a small comment about affinities, here is this one: Does someone with a stronger affinity for your element give a feeling of inferiority similar to a superior bloodline of the same species, or is that unique to bloodlines? 

Angel: I don't know…

Andrea: I also have no clue. Seniors, what do you think?

Mirrory: Hm… It usually isn't the case. After all, you can't really release the "aura" of your element. Naturally, there are exceptions, but it's not a regular thing. For example, Angel's glass affinity is incomparable with anyone else's in this lower realm, but people haven't reacted to it. 

WPOmega: I see. Thanks for answering!

Mirrory: Hm.

Author: And that's all for today! Bye-bye.